Cynthia Tucker: Trump’s crocodile tears expose his xenophobia

President Donald J. Trump has found a group he detests more than black football players: undocumented immigrants who allegedly drive drunk.

After news of the arrest of Manuel Orrego-Savala, charged with causing the car crash that killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and his Uber driver, Jeffrey Monroe, on Sunday, the president expressed his condolences to Jackson’s family — in a tweet, of course.

“My prayers and best wishes are with the family of Edwin Jackson, a wonderful young man whose life was so senselessly taken,” he said. It was an unexpected message of sympathy from a president whose usual mention of black NFL players is to express his contempt for those who fail to stand for the national anthem.

Of course, Trump would hardly have noticed Jackson’s death if it had not served his political purposes. The president has made his antipathy for undocumented immigrants an integral part of his political identity, and his base adores him for it.

That’s why it has been so difficult to cobble together a compromise that would lay a path to legal residency for those undocumented workers already here.

With the plight of young undocumented immigrants in the news, Trump has turned up the volume on his bigotry and xenophobia. During the recent State of the Union address, he conflated illegal immigration and criminality, falsely suggesting, as he had during his campaign that undocumented workers bring drugs and violence into the country.

It’s no surprise, then, that he couldn’t let an opportunity go by to politicize Jackson’s tragic demise. Trump tweeted: “So disgraceful that a person illegally in our country killed @Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson. This is just one of many such preventable tragedies. We must get the Dems to get tough on the Border, and with illegal immigration, FAST!”

If Orrego-Savala is guilty of causing the deaths of Monroe and Jackson by driving while under the influence, he deserves the harshest of prison sentences. But Trump’s reckless jingoism distorts the facts.

Last year, the American Journal of Public Health published a study examining the link between undocumented immigrants and rates of drug arrests, drug overdoses, DUI arrests and DUI deaths. The study found that increased undocumented immigration was associated with fewer drug and DUI arrests. In fact, overall, immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than the native-born.

Many opponents of immigration argue that illegal immigrants, especially, depress wages for low-skilled workers born in the United States. Some studies have shown that that’s true, at least around the margins. In general, however, economists say that immigrants revive fading communities, start new businesses and do jobs that the native-born won’t do — contributing to economic growth for everyone.

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In his State of the Union speech, Trump argued for an immigration policy that chooses from the well-educated and highly skilled who wish to come here: Chinese medical students, Indian entrepreneurs, African engineers. Such a policy has its appeal.

Certainly, well-educated immigrants have played an important part in American life. Indian-born Sundar Pichai is the chief executive officer of Google, while writer and activist Bette Bao Lord was born in China. Nigerian-born physician Bennet Omalu is credited with the pioneering research that led to the discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in professional football players.

But for many of Trump’s fiercest supporters, those accomplishments are quite beside the point. Many in Trump’s base are simply resentful of people of color and angry that they may someday account for a majority of American citizens.

That sort of xenophobia encourages the president to demonize a man such as Orrego-Savala based on immigration status rather than addressing the problem of drunk driving. It’s just what his supporters wish to hear.

Cynthia Tucker is a former winner of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Her syndicated column appears each Saturday.